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Marathon time: Isla ready to ‘step up her game’

Feeling stagnant at the half-marathon distance, province team runner Rose Isla ready for the full meal deal

Rose Isla is finally aiming to complete her first marathon after years of working on organized runs.

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider
, PNG

There is a degree of multi-faceted perspective with which Rose Isla views running.

It’s not just for her health, it’s not just for hobby. For Isla, organized running is part of the job.

The 33-year-old from Burnaby joins The Province 2013 BMO Vancouver Marathon team as the resident runner. Isla comes to the group of runners from the Lower Mainland selected by The Province, from The Province and the Vancouver Sun’s charity and promotions division.

She knows what goes into the organization of a race. She’s be a part of the creative process behind the Sun Run since 2010.

She also knows what it means to be the participant.

Isla has run ten half-marathons. This year, she (and her bosses) decided would be the year she finally ran the full.

“It was a nice surprise,” Isla said. “It gives me a chance to really tackle this challenge, this personal goal I’ve had for the last two year years.”

“I’ve done so many halves, it was just time to step up my game.”

As a novice runner, Isla ran her first long distance race in the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon in 2003. She entered the race as part of her then boyfriend, now husband’s, work team.

“I said, ‘yeah, sure, I’ll do a half,’ but I really had no idea what half was … I was in pretty good shape. I thought, ‘why not?’”

She finished with a time of two hours, three minutes and 39 seconds.

“I got hooked on running and that same week, I signed up for another run.”

Growing up, Isla hadn’t followed much of an active routine. She and her family moved to Vancouver from the Philippines when she was 10 years old. She dabbled in basketball in high school. It never really stuck.

“I only started becoming active when I [started] dating my now husband,” she said.

It started with hiking, mountain biking, and cycling. Then, she found running.

“I enjoyed it because it’s just me, myself and I, pretty much, on the road,” Isla said. “When I’m running, I have control over the pace I’m doing, and, as well, I’m just left alone with my thoughts.”

Recent have brought Isla something of an internal shift.

“After 10 [half marathons] — I could always keep doing halves … but I feel I’ve become stagnant there. For me, I think honestly it’s about the challenge,” Isla said of doing her first full marathon.

“It’s about doing something that you’ve never done before and it just means — the challenge — you’re growing and you’re changing and it’s always for the better.”

This Sunday, Isla plans on running her eleventh half-marathon as part of her training regiment for the May 5 race.

“I’m competitive when it comes to running,” Isla said, contemplating, “whether or not to run this one as my personal best.”

This time, she decided, she would go into the race in the way that she has with the Sun Run. She would race this Sunday with that organizer perspective.

“I’m just going to have fun with it. I’m going to have the camera and take photos … and maybe Tweet along the way.”

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